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HOMESTEADS FOR SOLDIERS ON THE LANDS OF REBELS. 



spb;ech / 

jy OF 

HON. GEO. W. JULIAN, of ^flffil; 




DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 18, 1864. 

The House having under consideration the 'ill reported from the Committee on Public Lands amend- 
atory of the homestead law, together with the amendments thereto, Mr. JULIAN said : 

Mr. Speaker: During the past month I prepared and reported from the Committee on 
Public Lauds a bill to provide homesteads for persons in the militarj^ and naval service 
of the United States, on the forfeited *and confiscated lands of rebels. The bill wa.s 
re-committed and printed; and my purpose was to discuss its provisions under the gene- 
ral call of committees for reports, which will bring the subject directly before the House 
for its action. I find, however, in tie crowded state of our business, that this would de- 
lay my purpose indefinitely; and I have therefore concluded to avail myself of the op- 
portunity now offered to submit what I have to say. 

The measure referred to will be considered a novel one, but it should not therefore be 
regarded with surprise or disfavor. Our country is in a novel condition. The civil war 
in which we are engaged is one of the grandest novelties the world has ever seen. We 
are every day brought face to face with new questions, and compelled to accept the new 
duties which lie in our path. Whosoever comprehends this crisis, and is willing to assume 
its burdens, must keep step to the march of events, and turn his back upon the past. 

The bill I have reported, however, is less a novelty in its principles, than in their ap- 
plication to new and unlooked for conditions. It involves, among other things, the policy 
of free homesteads to actual settlers ; and since this policy is now seriously nrtenaced, I may 
be allowed to refer briefly to the subject, by way of preface to what I shall have to say 
on the special matter before us. 

Our homestead law was approved May the 20th, 1862. Its enactment was a long de- ' 
layed but magnificent triumph of freedom and free labor over the slave power. While 
that power ruled the Government its success was impossible. By recognizing the dignity 
of labor and the equal rights of the million, it threatened the very life of the oligarchy 
which had so long stood in its way. The slaveholders understood this perfectly ; and 
hence they resisted it, reinforced by their northern allies, with all the zeal and despera- ; 
tion with whicii they resisted " abolitionism" itself. / Its final success is among the bles-seCl 
compensations of the bloody conflict in which we are plunged. This policy takes for 
grauted the notorious fact that our public lands have practically ceased to be a source of 
revenue. It recognizes the evils of land monopoly on the public domain, as well as ih 
the old States, and looks to its settlement and improvement as the true aim and highest 
good of the Pvepublic. It disowns, as iniquitous, the principle which would tax our land- 
less poor men a dollar and a quarter per acre for the priviledge of cultivating the earth; 
for the privilege of Oiaking it a subject of taxation, a source of national revenue, and a 
home for themselves and their little ones. It assumes, to use the words of General Jack- 
son, that "the wealth and strength of a country are its population," and that " the best 
part of that population are the cultivators of the soil." This bold and heroic statesman 
urged this policy thirty-two j ears ago; and had it then been adopted, coupled with ad- 
equate guards against the greed of speculators, millions of landless men who have since 
gone down to their graves in the weary conflict with poverty and hardship, would have 
been cheered and blest with independent homes on the public domain. Wealth incalcu- 
lable, quarried from the mountains and wrung from the forests and prairies of the West, 
would have poured into the federal coff'ers. The question of slavery in our national ter- 
ritories would have found a peaceful solution in the steady advance and sure empire of 
free labor, whilst slavery in its strongholds, girdled by free institutions, might have been 
content to die a natural death, instead of ending its godless career in an infernal leap at 
the nation's throat. — i 

The homestead act did not go into effect till the first of January, 1863. Within four 
months from that date, notwithstanding the troubled state of the country, more than a 
million of acres were taken up under its provisions ; and at the close of the year endingj 
September the 30th, this amount was increased to nearly a million and a half Peace will 
eoon revisit the land andjj^urrect the cation to a new life. The energy aud activity of 



2 

the people, now directed to the business of war, will be dedicated afresh to industrial 
pursuits. Many thousands in the loyal States who will have caught the spirit of travel 
and adventure, .and far greater multitudes in the old world who will be teini>ted to our 
shores, will lay hold of the homestead law as their glad refuge and sure help. It will 
be the day-star of hope to inillious beyond the sea, and it is now the fond child of the 
millions of our own people who march under the old flag of our fathers. Should it stand 
for ten years to come, its bje'ssings will outstrip the most sanguine anticipations of its 
friends. Its overthrow, I have said, is threatened ; and this is done by indirection, as 
well as by open assault. Since the date of its passage, Congress has granted neaily seven 
millions of acres for the benefit of agricultural colleges, and about twenty millions to aid 
in the construction of railroads. There are now pending before Congress bills making 
other grants for railroads amounting to nearly seventy millions of acres. We have a 
project before us which grants nearly seven millions of acres for the education of the 
children of soldiers; another, granting two hundj«d thousand acres in the State of Mich- 
igan for the establishment of female colleges, wlfch of course would be extended to the 
other States ; and another, granting ten millions of acres for the establishment of Normal 
schools for young ladies. Every day witnesses the birth of new projects, by which our 
public lands may be frittered away, and the beh.eficient policy, of the homestead law mu- 
tilated and destroyed. And simultaneously vj^th the development of this backward 
movement, and as if to aid it, speculators are hovering over the public domain, picking 
and culling large tracts of the best lands, and thus cheating the government out of their 
productive wealth, and the poor man out of the hon^ which else might be his at the end 
of the war. Whilst the homestead policy is thus invaded b}' gradual approaches and in- 
direct attack, its overthrow is boldly demanded as a financial necessity. A veteran pub- 
lic journalist, and one of the foremost part}- leaders of our time, proposes to go back from 
the Christian dispensation of free homes and actual settlement to the Jewish darkness of 
land speculators and public plunder. He wants money to pay our immense national 
debt, and seeks to obtain it by levying on the lands which the nation has already dedicated 
by law to occupancy and cultivation as the sure means of revenue. What we want and 
the Government needs is immigration. This is demonstrated by the report of Hon. Samuel 
B. Ruggles to the International Congress which met at Berlin in last September. He 
takes the eight food-producing States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, 
Minnestoa, Iowa, and Missouri, and shows that between the years 1850 and 18G0 their 
population increased 3,554,095, of whom a very lai'ge proportion were emigrants from 
the old States and from Europe. He shows that this influx of population increased the 
quantity of improved land in these States, within the same period, 25,146,054 acres; that 
the cereal products of these States increased 248,210,028 bushels; tliat their swine in- 
creased 2,503,224; their cattle 2,831,098. He further shows that within tlie same period 
the assessed valueof real and personal estate of these States was augmented $2,810,000,000. 
These, to a great extent, are the direct results of immigration ; and in the light of these 
facts the interest and duty of the Government are palpable. By all honorable and rea- 
sonable means it should tempt Europe to send her people to our shores. From 1850 to 
1860 the immigration averaged, annually, 270,762, giving a total of 5,062,414. Within 
the next ten years, should the homestead policy continue, the number of immigrants will 
probably far transcend all precedent, while increasing multitudes from our older States 
■will join in the grand procession towards the West. If Thurlow Weed wishes to use the 
public domain in paying our national debt, here is the process. It is simply to give heed 
to the divine injunction to "multiply and replenish the earth." It is to give homes to 
the millions who need them, and at the same time coin their labor into national wealth, 
by marrying it to the virgin soil which woos the cultivator. It is to compel the earth to 
yield up her fruits, so that commerce may transmute them into silver and gold. Thus 
only can we solve the problem of our finances, so far as the public lands are concerned. 
The project of paying a debt of three thousand millions of dollars, or even the interest 
on it, by the sale of these lands, is sublimely ridiculous; whilst the proposition to repeal 
the homestead law is a proposition to encourage speculation, to plunder the Government, 
to betray the just rights of millions by violating the plighted faith of the nation, to hin- 
der the march of civilization, and to weaken the force of our example as a Republic, 
asserting equal rights and equal laws as the basis of its policy. 

But I pass from this topic. I have adverted to it, partly because I desired to sound 
the alarm of danger in the ears of the people, and thus avert its approach, and partly 
because the considerations I have presented bear directly upon the measure now before 
the House. 

Mr. Speaker, this rebellion has frequently, and very justly, been styled a slave- 
holders rebellion. It is likewise a land-holders rebellion, for the chief owners of slaves 
have been the chief owners of land. Probably three-fourths, if not five-sixths of the 
lands in the rebel states at the beginning of the war belonged to the slaveholders, who 
constituted only about one fiftieth part of the whole population of those States ; whilst of 
the entire landed estate of the three hundred and fifty thousand slaveholders of the 



3 

South, at least twotblrds belonged to less than one-third of their number. I make my 
calculations from our census tables, and sucl\ other information as I find within my reach. 
The bill I have reported therefore contemplates no general seizure and confiscation of 
the property of the people in the insurrectionary districts. It looks to no sweeping 
measures against tlie rights of the masses, but simply to the breaking up and distribu- 
tion of vast monopolies, which have made the few the virtual owners of the multitude, 
whether white or black. It is^a bill to restore the people to their inalienable rights, by 
chastising the traitors who conspired against the government. It proposes to vest in 
the United States the lands which maybe forfeited by confiscation in punishment of 
treason, or of other crimes under municipal laws ; by confiscation as a right of war, by 
military seizure, or by process in retu ; and by sales for nonpayment of taxes. The 
quantiitj of real estate which will thus pass from the hands of rebels' cannot now be 
definitely determined, but in seeking to estimate it we should bear in mind one impor- 
tant consideration. The war which the rebels are waging against us is no longer a mere 
insurrection. It is not a grand national I'iot, but a civil, territorial war between them 
and the United States. Having taken their stand outside of the Constitution, and rested 
their cause on the naked ground of lawless might, they have, of necessity, no constitu- 
tional rights. For them the Constitution has ceased to exist. They are belligerents, ene- 
mies of the United States. They still owe allegiance to the government, and are still 
traitors, but they are at the same time pul)lic enemies, who have simply the rights of 
war, and are to be dealt with according to the laws of war. The rights of war and the 
rights of peace cannot co-exist in the hands of rebels. One party to a contract can- 
not violate it, and yet hold the other bound; and hence the Constitution has nothing 
■whatever to do with our treatment of the rebels, unless we shall see fit voluntarily to 
waive the rights of war, and deal with them as citizens merely. I am not now uttering 
my own opinion but the solemn judgment of the Nation itself, speaking authoritatively 
through the highest court in the Union. According to the decision of that court a civil war 
between the United States and the rebels has been carried on for more than two years and 
a half. In the celebrated prize cases decided last spring, and reported in 2, Black's Re- 
ports, p. 635, Judge Grier says, " the parties to a civil war are in the same predicament 
as two nations who engage in a contest, and have recourse to arms;" that " a civil war 
exists, and may be prosecuted, on the same footing as if those opposing the government 
were foreign invaders, whenever the regular course of justice is interrupted by revolt, 
rebellion, or insurrection, so that the courts cannot be kept open ;" and that "the present 
civil war between the United States and the so-called Confederate States has such a 
character and magnitude as to give the United States the same rights and powers which 
they might exercise is the case of a national or foreign war." Such, Mr. Speaker, is the 
law as to the relations existing between the rebels and the United States. I am not 
arguing the point, because all argument is closed by this decision. The rebels are belli- 
gerents, and when they shall be effectually vanquished, they will have simply the rights 
of a conquered people under the law of nations, that is to say, such rights as we shall 
choose to grant them, according to the laws of war, untrammelled by the Constitution 
of the United States. 

In the light of this settled principle, Mr. Speaker, I judge of the extent of rebel 
territory which must fall under our control. The war will increase in intensity and 
fierceness to the end. The exasperation of the rebels will naturally keep pace with our 
successes. Our war policy, which has been steadily growing more and more earnest and 
radical for the past two years, will not again become a " war on peace principles." The 
amnesty proclamation may reach the case of many, but should it reach even all who are 
not expressly excepted by its terms, there will still be an immense territory falling under 
■our power. Sir, whether we have willed it or not, this is now a war of subjugation, and 
the law of nations nm^t govern the parties and the settlement of the dispute. We shall 
not be confined to the penal enactments of Congress on the subject of treason, which 
require an indictment, a regular trial, and a conviction. The condemation of rebel prop- 
erty need not depend upon the prosecution of its owner through a grand jury, who may 
be wbollj' or in part secessionists, nor upon his conviction by a petit jury of like char- 
acter, nor upon the finding of a bill within any statute of limititations. Resting our 
case on the law of nations and the laws of war, we are not compelled to seek the land 
of the rebel through a trial which must be had in the county in which the offence was 
committed, and in which both court and jury may be in sympathy with the accused. 
The seveial penal acts of Congress on these subjects, and the ordinary safeguards of law 
appHcable to the rights of citizens in a time of peace, are not in our way. The war 
powers of the government, as asserted and defined in the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th, sections 
of the confiscation act of July 17, 1862, point to a remedy as sweeping as it is jj^^t, 
namely, the military seizure, condemnation, and sale of the real estate of traitors an 
their abettors. A considerable quantity of land, it is true, may pass from the rebels by 
judicial proceedings against them for treason, and other crimes under municipal statute^. 
I know too that millions of acres must be forfeited by the non-payment of taxes. But 



4 

iiulependent of these sources of title, and by virtue of military seizure and condemna- 
tion alone, a verj- large proportion of the lands within the iusurrectJonarj districts must 
v''P:5t in the government of the United States. 

If it be said that the government has no right to confiscate the fee simple of rebel 
Striies, I meet it with a direct denial. la what I have said, 1 have taken this right for 
granted. I have never doubted it for a m.oment, and I shall not now argue the question. 
The honest refusal of the President, in last June, to allow Congress to touch the fee of 
rebels in arms against the nation, was the saddest and grandest mistake of his life. That 
the right to do so was disputed and debated in the last Congress, as it has been exten- 
fively in this, by some of our wisest statesmen and greatestlawyers, will hereafter be 
set down among the political curiosities of this century. Our fathers were not fools, but 
wise men, who armed the nation with the power to crush its foes, as well as to protect 
its friends. "The Constitution was made for the people, not the people for the Gcnsti- 
tutton." It was not designed as a shield in the hands of traitors, but as a sword in the 
liatidd of the government to smite them to the earth. It recognizes the law of nations 
a:id tlie laws of war, nor was it possible for our country to escape them. The builders 
of our national ship did not so fashion and rig her that she could sail only in calm 
weather and over smooth seas, but they qualified her to ride out the fiercest tempest in 
s.afety. and to defy all pirates. That the nation, in this struggle for its life against red- 
lianded traitors and assassins, has no power to confiscate their lands, is a proposition 
which gives comfort to every rebel sympathizer in the country, while it insults both 
loyalty and common sense. The people linow better, and on this question their voice 
mnst be heeded. They do not believe, but they knov), that the lands of rebels are sub- 
ject to our power iinder the laws of war, as well as their personal property, their 
negroes, or their lives. The government, in the course of this struggle, has learned 
many lessons. Others are yet to be mastered. Having learned how to strike at slavery 
as the wicked cause of the war, and to arm the negroes in the national defence, it must 
now lay hold of the lands of rebels. I believe our triumph over them is not so near 
at hand as we generally suppose. The most terrific fighting of the war is yet to come. 
They do not dream of surrender, or compromise, on any conceivable terms. They will 
resist us, to the end, with a spirit bb remorseless as death, and as bitter as the ashes of 
hell. They must be overcome and crushed by the powers of war, and we must employ, 
with all the might which can be kindled by the crisis, every weapon known to the law 
of nations. Congress must repeal the joint resolution of last j^ear which protects the 
fee of rebel land-holdei-s. The President, as I am well advised, now stands ready to 
join us in such action. Should we fail to do this the courts must so interpret the joint 
resolution as to make its repeal needless. Should both Congress and the courts stand in 
the way of the nation's life, then "the red lighting of the people's wrath," must con- 
sume the recreant men who refuse to execute the popular will. Our countr_y, united and 
free, must be saved, at whatever hazard or cost ; and nothing, not even the Constitution, 
must be allowed to hold back the uplifted arm of the government, in blasting the power 
of the rebels forever. 

I come then, Mr. Speaker, to the practical question involved in this bill. This con- 
flict is to be ended by hard, desperate, and perhaps protracted fighting. We shall cer- 
tainly win ; and our triumph will inevitably divest the little to a vast body of land in 
the rebel States, and place it under our controL I think it entirely safe to conclude that 
it will constitute more than half and probably three-fourths, of all the cultivated lands 
in the rebellious districts. It will certainly, in any event, cover many millions of acres. 
It will include all lands against which proceedings in rem shall be instituted, under the 
provisions of the act to suppress insurrections, and to punish treason and rebellion, ap- 
)>roved July I'Zth, 1862; all lands which may be sold under the provisions of the act for 
the collection of direct taxes in insurrectionary districts, approved June 7th, 1862; and 
all lands which may be sold under the provisions of the act to provide internal revenue 
to support the Government, approved July 1st of the same year. 

What shall be done with these immense estates, brought within our power hy the act6_ 
of rebels? One of two policies, radically antagonistic, must be accepted. They must be 
allowed to fall into the hands of speculatoi-s, and become the basis of new and frightful 
monopolies, or they must be placed under the jurisdiction of the Government, in trust 
for the people.' The alterifative is now presented, and presses upon us for a speedy de- 
cision. Under the laws of Congress now in force, unchecked by counter legislation, these 
lands will be purchased and monopolized by men who caie far more for their own mer- 
cenary gains than for the real progress and glory of our country. Instead of being par- 
celed out into small homesteads, to be titled by their own independent owners, they will 
be bought in large tracts, and thus not only deprive the great mass of landless laborers 
of the opportunity of acquiring homes, but place them at the mercy of the lords of the 
soil. The old order of things will be swept away, but a new order, scarcely less to be 
deplored, will succeed. In place of the slaveholding land-owner of the South, lording it 
over hundreds of slaves and thousands of acres, we shall ha-ve the grasping monopolist 



5 

of the North, whose dominion over the freedmen and poor whites will be more galling 
than slavery itself, which in some degree tempers its despotism through the interest of 
the tyrant in the health and welfare of his victims. T!ie maxim of the slaveholder that 
"capital should own labor," will be as frightfully exemplified under the system r,f wage^ 
slavery, the child of land monopoly, as hnJer the system of chattel slavery, which has 
eo long scourtjed the southern States. What we should demand is a policy that will 
guarantee homes to the loyal millions who need them, and thus guard their most precious 
rights and interests agains't the remoiselcss exactions of capital and the pittiless rapacitj'- 
of avarice. The helpless condition of the poor of the rebel States, when capitalists shall 
have monopolized the' land, is already forshadowed in the recent repoi-t of Mr. Yeatman, 
of the Western Sanitary Commission. He says: 

' ' The poor negroes are ererywhere greatly oppresacd at their condition. They all testify that if they 
wpre only paid their little wages as tliey earn lliem, so that they could parchase clothiug, and furnished 
with the provisions promised, they could stand it; but to work and gpt poorly paid, poorly' fed, and not 
doctored when sick, is more than they can endure. Among the tlionsanils whom I questioned none 
Showed the least unwillingness to work.. If they culd only be paid fair wages they would Ije conicnted 
and hupps-. They do not realize that they are free men. They say that they are told they are, but then 
they are taken and hired out to mfen who treat them, so far as providing for them is concerned, far 
worse than their ' seceah' masters did. Besides this, they feel that their pay or hire Is lower now than it 
was when the ' secesh' used to hire them. 

"The parties leasing plantations and employing these negroes do it from no motives either of loyalty 
or humanity. The desire of gain alone prompts them, and they care little whether they make it out of 
the blood i>f those they employ, or from the soil: There are, of course, exceptions; but I am informed 
that the majority of the lessees were only adventurers, camp followers, 'army sharks,' as they are term- 
ed, who have turned aside from what they consider their legitimate prey, the poor soldier, to gather the 
riches of the land which his prowess has laid open to them. I feel that the fathers and brothers and 
friends of tliese brave men should have an opportunity to reap, under a morc^ equitable system for the 
laborer, the reward of the months of toil and exposure it has cos', to open this country to the institutions 
of freedom and compensated labor. If these plantations were required to be sul)divided into parcels or 
tracts, to suit tlie views and means of our western men, say in farms of from one to two hundred acres, 
thousands would soon floek to the South to lease them, especially when it was known that one acre of 
ground there cultivated in cotton woul<l yield, in dollars, ten times as much as at home. Besides this, 
subdivision would attract a loyal population, who would protect the country against any guerrilla bands 
that might infest it." 

Mr. Speaker, the poor whites of the South will be as powerless to take care of them- 
selves as the freedmen, unless the Government shall arm them against their masters. 
"Subdivision" of the land, as Mr. Yeatman says, would also secure a loyal population, 
since every man who has a home to love and to defend will naturally love his country. 
This rebellion will present the strongest temptations to land raonopolj' that were ever 
offered to the greed of avarice and power. The rich lauds of the South have been 
cursed by this evil from the begitining, and without the interposition of Congress the 
system will be continued, and vitalized anew by falling into fresh hands. The degraded 
and thriftless condition of the peoj)]e, the heritage of centuries of bondage, will pave the 
way for land monopoly in more grievous forms than have yet been recorded in ancient or 
modern times. Society cannot possibly be organized on a Republican basis, because a 
grinding aristocracy, resting upon large landed estates, will convert the mass of 
the people into mere drudges and dependants. African slaveiy may not exist in name, 
but the few will practically control the fortunes of the many, irrespective of color or race. 
In such communities public improvements will necessarily languish. Wasteful and 
slovenly farming will stamp upon the country the impress of dilapidation, while redu- 
cing the productiveness of the soil, and hindering the growth of manufactures and com- 
merce. In the midst of large landed estates, towns and villages can neither be multi- 
plied nor enjoy a healthy growth. The want of diversity of pursuits and competition 
in busines-s, will palsy the energies of the people. The education of the masses will be 
impossible, since the establishment and support of schools within convenient reach of 
the people cannot be secured. The proprietors of the great estates, as has been well re- 
marked, will be feudal lords, while the poor will have no feudal rights. Under the ten- 
dency of a false systeni, society will steadilj' gravitate towards the example of South 
America and Mexico, where some estates are larger than two or three of the smaller 
States of our Unioii. The country will find its likeness in England, in which the smaller 
landholders are daily being swallowed up by the larger. 

"In the civilized world," says Dr. Channing, "there are few sadder spectacles than the 
present contrast in Great Britain of unbounded wealth and luxury, with the starvation 
of thousands and tens of thousands, crowded into cellars and dens, without ventilation 
or light, compared with which the wigwam of the Indian is a palace. Misery, famine, 
brutal degradation, in the neighborhood and presence of stately mansions, which ring 
with gaiety, and dazzle with pomp and unbounded profusion, shock us as does no other 
wretchedness." 

Sir, the sympathy of the British aristocracy for the rebels is altogether natural. Land 
monopoly is slavery. The great English landlord looks upon the large slaveholders of 
the South as " brothers beloved," while the " sand-hillers" and " clay-eaters" of Carolina 



6 

and Georgia are perhaps not more miserably degraded by unjust laws than the English 
agricultural laborer. Mr. Baacroft, describing the condition of Italy some two thousand 
years ago, says: 

"The aristocracy owned the soil and its cultivators. The vast capacity for accumulation which the ■ 
laws of society secure to capital in a greater degree than to personal exertion, displays itself nowhere 
BO clearly as in slaveholdinr,' States, wliere tlje laboring class is but a portion of the capital of the opu- 
lent. As wealth consists cliielly in land and slaves, the rales of interest are, from univers.ally operative 
causes, always comparilively high: the ilifflenlty of adv.ancing with borrowed capital proi'onionally 
great. The small landholder finds himself unable to compete with those who are possessed of whole 
cohorts of bondmen : his slaves, his lands, rapidly p.ass, in consequence of his debts, into the hands of 
the more opulent. Tbe large plantations are continually swallowing up the smaller ones; and land and 
slaves come to be engrossed by a few." 

This is not only an exact description of slavery as we have seen it in the southern 
States, but a parallel in principle to the system of aristocracy in England, founded, on 
the monopoly of the soil. Travelers through that country speak of it as "thinly set- 
tled." Outside of the cities and towns this is true. Even the commons, on which the poor 
used to pasture their cattle and enjoy their games, are now enclosed by legalized land 
robbers. Those who demand a correction of these evils, in the name of justice and the 
people, are denounced as " Agrarians," just as the enemies of slavery in this country are 
branded as "Abolitionists." The slaveliolding land monopolists of this country are to- 
day reaping the bitter fruits of their unrighteous domination. A retributioTi to the 
aristocracy of England, not less terrible, is as certain to come as that pampered injustice 
finds no limits to its demands. 

But I need not dwell longer upon the evils of land monopoly. The history of civiliza- 
tion furnishes an unbroken testimony to these evils, and thus pleads with us, in the or- 
ganization of new civil communities, to fortify ourselves against them. A grand oppor- 
tunity now presents itself for recognizing the principles of radical democracy in the es- 
tablishment of new and regenerated States. We are summoned by every consideration 
of patriotism, humanity, and republicanism to lay the foundations of empire upon the 
enduring basis of justice and equal rights. No revolutionary or destructive measures are 
required on our part. We are already in the midst of revolution and chaos. Through 
no fault of our own, the foundations of social and political order in the rebel States are 
subverted, and the elimination of a great disturbing element opens up our pathway to 
the establishiieut of free Christian commonwealths on the ruins, of the past. These 
States constitute one of the fairest portions of the globe. They are larger in area than 
all the free States of the North. They have a sea and gulf coast of more than six thou- 
sand miles in extent, and are drained b}' more than fifty navigable rivers, which are 
never closed to navigation by the vigor of the climate. They have at least as rich a soil 
as the States of the North, yielding great wealth-producing staples peculiar to them, 
and two or three crops in the year. They have a finer climate, and their agricultural, 
manufacturing, and commercial advantages are decidedly superior. Their geographical 
position is better, as respects the great commercial centres of the world. The institution 
of slavery, which has so long cursed these regions by excluding emigration, degrading 
labor, and impoverishing the soil, will very soon be expelled. The cry which already 
comes up from these lands is for free laborers. If we offer them free homesteads, and 
protect their rights, they will come. John Bright, in a recent speech at Birming- 
ham, estimates that within the past year 150,000 people have sailed from England to 
New York. Let it be settled that slavery is dead, and that the estates of traitors in the 
South can be had under the provisions of the homestead law, and foreign emigration 
will be quadrupled, if not augmented ten fold. Millions in the old world, hungering and 
thirsting after the righteousness of free institutions^ will flock to the sunny South, and 
mingle there with the swarms of our own people in pursuit of new homes under kindlier 
skies. Immigration has not slackened, even during this war, and in determining the di- 
rection it will take it must be remembered that settlements have very nearly reached 
their limits in the North and West. Kansas and Nebraska are border States, and must 
80 continue. Their storms, and draughts, and desert plains give a pretty distinct hint 
that the emigrant must seek his Eldorado in latitudes further south. In the new North- 
western States the richest lands have been purchased, and vast portions of them locked 
up by speculators. Their distance from the great markets for their produce, and their 
severe winters, will also check emigration in that direction, and incline it further south, 
if lands can be procured there with tolerable facility. The rebel States not only abound 
in cheap and fertile land, with cheap labor in the persons of the freedmen to assist in its 
cultivation, but they possess great mineral resources. They have also extensive lines of 
railroads, which, in connection with their great rivers, bring almost every portion of their 
territory into communication with the sea. 

Mr. Speaker, nothing can atone for the woes and sorrows of this war but the thor- 
ough reorganization of society in these revolted States. Now is the time to begin this 
work. We must not only cut up slavery, root and branch, but we must see to it that 
these teeming regions shall be studded over with small farms and tilled by free men. We 



must remember that " the best way to help the poor is to enable them to help themselves." 
We must guard the equal rights of the people as a religious duty, for "Chiistianity is the 
root of all democracy, the highest fact in the rights of luafi." Labor must be rendered 
honorable and gainful, by securing to the laborer the fruits of his toil. Instead of the 
spirit of Caste and tlie law of Hate, which have so long blasted these regions, we must 
build up homogeneous communities, in which the interest of each will be recognized &a 
the interest of all. Instead of an overshadowing aristocracy, founded on the monopoly 
of the soil, and its dominion over the poor, we must have no order of nobility but that 
of the laboring masses of the country, who fight its battles in wai", ani constitute its 
glory and its strength in peace. Instead of large estates, widely scattered settlements, 
wasteful agriculture, popular ignorance, political and social degradation, the decay of 
literature, the decline of manufactures and the arts, contempt for honest labor, and a pam- 
pered aristocracy, we must have small farms, closely associated communities, thrifty til- 
lage, free schools, social independence, a healthy literature, flourishing manufactures and 
mechanic arts, respect for honest labor, and equality of political rights. These ends, to 
a great extent, are provided for by the bill I have introduced, and no measure of more 
vital interest to the people has ever been submitted to the Congress of the United States. 
I voted for the bill which has passed this House, providing for a Bureau of Emanci[)ation, 
but I must regard this measure as a far better "freedman's bill" than that of my honor- 
able friend from Massachusetts, for it provides for the emancipation of all races, and the 
freedom of labor itself. These regions, blighted by treason, must be cared for, or aban- 
doned, by the General Government. The heaven-daring conspiracy of rebels in arms has 
placed them, or will place them, at our feet. Shall we hand them over to the speculator, 
in the hope of thereby securing a revenue to pay our national debt? I have shown that 
the true source of revenue is the cultivation of the soil. The future of these rebellious 
States, involving the well-being of millions for generations to come, is now committed to 
our hands. We can re-enact over them the political and social damnation of the past, 
or predestinate them to the blessedness and glory of a grand and ever-unfolding future. 
We can build up a magnificent constellation of free commonwealths, whose territory can 
support a population of more than one hundred millions, on the basis of free labor and a just 
distribution of land among the people ; or we can again organize society after the pattern 
of Europe, and thus spare the hideous cancer, which, in the words of Chateaubriand, 
" has gnawed social order since the beginning of the world." Can we hesitate, in dealing 
with so fearful an alternative? Shall we mock the Almighty by sporting with the heaven- 
permitted privilege now placed before us? Shall we heap curses on our children, when 
blessings are within our grasp ? Sir, let us prove ourselves worthy of our day and of our 
work. Let us rise to the full height of our sublime opportunity, and thus make our- 
selves, under Providence, the creators of a new dispensation of liberty and peace. Then, 
in the eloquent language of Solicitor Whiting, " the hills and valleys of the South, puri- 
fied and purged of all the guilt of the past, clothed with a new and richer verdure, will 
lift up their voices in thanksgiving to the Author of all good, who has granted to them, 
amidst the agonies of civil war, a new birth and a glorious transfiguration. Then, the 
people of the North and the people of the South, will again bacome one people, united, 
in interests, in pursuits, in intelligence, in religion, and in patriotic devotion to our com- 
mon country." 

As regards the particular provisions of the oill before us, I need not occupy much of 
the time of this House. It has been printed, and gentlemen have had the opportu- 
nity of examining it for themselves. It has been prepared with much care, and with the 
assistance of some of the best lawyers in the Union. The first and second sections of the 
bill provide the methods by which the title of rebel land owners shall vest in the United 
States under the acts of Congress now in force on the subject of confiscation and revenue. 
I shall not discuss the power of the government thus to acquire the title to this laud, for 
it cannot be controverted without overturning all the legislation of the last Congress on 
the subject of confiscation, internal revenue, and the collection of taxes in insurrectionary 
districts. I have, in fact, already argued the question of power, in what 1 have save said 
of our relations to the rebels as belligerents. 

The third section provides for the survey of the lands in question as nearly as may be 
in forty acre lots. This is deemed necessary from the fact that in several of the insur- 
rectionary districts the old system of irregular survej's exists, and not the present or rect- 
angular system. The section also provides for the appointment of necessary officers and 
their compensation, and contemplates the application and use of the machinery of the 
General Land Office within such districts. 

The fourth section gives a homestead of eighty acres to all soldiers who shall have 
served in the army or navy two years, and forty acres to all persons who shall have aided 
in the military service against the rebels for any period of time, either as soldiers or la- 
borers. It also extends the provisions of the homestead act of 1862 over these lands, and 
thus avoids any new and cumbersome regulations, and exact? a continuous residence of 
five years to consummate the title. 



8 

The fifth section provides that after beeping the lands open for homesteads for five 
years, those remaining vacant shall be sold at< public sale. It prohibits the sacrifice of 
them b}' fixing a minimum price, which they tpiist bring. It also requires the purchaser 
to comply with the pre-emption act of 1841, prior to his receiving a patent, thus demand- 
ing a residence on the land, and precluding an accumulation of it in the hands of specu- 
lators. These safeguards look to the benefit of the mass, and not the interests of a few, 
even after homesteads have been selected. This section also pi-ovides that proof of loy- 
alty shall be made by all persons claiming rights under the bill. 

The sixth section, as will be seen, requires no comment. The seventh requires persons 
selecting improved lands to pay for whatever may be found of value on them, after an 
appraisement by persons regularly appointed for the purpose, and to pay the costs created 
by the proceeding. The effect will be that the expenses created by the act will be paid 
into the treasury of the United States, and may exceed the expenditures which will be 
connected with its operations. 

The eighth section establishes an obviously just if not a necessary rule of construction 
as to persons of color, giving them equal rights with white men, and extends the inchoate 
rights of a settler to his heirs, or widow, who may complete payments and make proof. 

The ninth section places the execution of the act in the Department of the Interior, or 
that more immediately connected with the land system ; and the last section repeals all 
laws inconsistent with the provisionsof the act. I will only add, that the act lias nothing to 
do with real estate in towns, cities, and villages, which will, of course, continue to be 
sold as heretofore. 

These, Mr. Speaker, are the material provisions of the bill. They embody principles 
which I have endeavored to vindicate, by argument and by fact. If I am right, then 
every moment of delay is a golden opportunity wasted forever. Under the present 
policy of the government every passing day bears witness to the transfer of thousands 
of acres of forfeited lands to speculators. According to Judge Underwood, more than two 
hundred millions of dollars worth of property in the State of Virginia, chiefly real estate, 
should be confiscated by the government. Thousands of acres are now being sold in the 
vicinity of this city. In September last the President of the United States issued instruc- 
tions to the Tax Commissioners of South Carolina, providing for the sale of 40,845 acres, 
of which 24,316 acres were to be sold to the highest bidder, in tracts of 320 acres. The 
remainder was to be sold to the heads of African families, for such sums, not less than 
one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, as the govei-nment should see fit to demand. 
These sales are portions of a lot of '76,'775 acres ofl:'ered oh the 9th of last March, when 
16,479 aei'es were sold to speculators ; making an aggregate of 40,795 acres, which will 
have been sold in large tracts, leaving f.ir the negro only 16,479 acres which he may 
buy, if he can raise the money to pay the price fixed by the government. Such trans-i 
actions as these, in Port ILoyal, where so much has beein hoped for tlie freedman, are 
most, significant. If any people have a divine right to these tropical lands, they are 
the shiVes who have bought them, over and over, by their sweat and toil and blood, 
through centuries of oppression. Degraded and imbruited by servitude, mere children 
in knowledge and self help, we require them to compete for their homesteads with the 
sharpened faculties of the white speculator, schooled in avarice by generations of money 
getting, who believes the Ahiiighty dollar is the only living and true God, and would 
"run into the moutli of hell after a bale of cotton." Sir, our government is false to its 
truiit, infidel to its mission, if it shall lend its high sanction to such wanton injustice and 
Tvrbng Had I the power I would give a free home on the forfeited land of rebels ta 
every bondman in the insurrectionary districts. Let the governmefut at least give him 
an equal chance with our own race, in the settlement and enjoyment of his native land. 
Less than this would be a mockery of justice, and au insult both to decency and humanity. 
He is excluded from the Northern States and territories by their uncongenial climate, by 
his attachment to his birth-place, and by Anglo-Saxon domination and enterprize. Let the 
government which has so long connived at his oppression now make sure to him a free 
homestead on the land of his oppressor. Let us deal justly with the African, and thereby 
lay claim to justice lor ourselves^ Let us remember, in the language of our patriotic Chief 
Magistrate, that " We cannot escape historj'. We of this Congress and this administration, 
will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can 
spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light ns down, 
in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. In giving freedom to the slave we assure 
freedom to the free ; honorable alike in what we give and what we preser-^^^. We shall 
nobl}' save or meauly lose the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed ; this 
could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just, — a way which, if followed, 
the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless." 



L. TowEKS & Co., Printers, corner Louisiana avenue and 6th Btreet, 




LiBRARV OF 



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